The Raleigh Report
from the office of Representative Marian McLawhorn
August 24, 2010
Education is one of the most important services of government in North Carolina, and all of us agree that providing a good education for our young people is critical for the success of our state. I have shared an overview with you in the past few weeks of some key accomplishments in education from this past session. This week, I wanted to share a fuller accounting of our education budget, including those areas where we added money and those places where we had to cut back to balance our budget.
If you have any questions or if I can be of service to you, please contact me. Thank you as always for your interest in North Carolina and state government.
Public Schools
_ Prevented layoffs of any instructional personnel in K-12 by adjusting the lottery receipts budgeted for classroom teachers. Also redirected $16.8 million from the Lottery Reserve and $19.3 million in projected over realized revenues - $126 million.
_ Restored proposed cuts for assistant principals - $4.5 million.
_ Provided on a nonrecurring basis for the purchase of replacement textbooks for emergency situations. The State Board of Education shall develop rules and guidelines for the allocation of these funds - $5 million.
_ Reduced the annual appropriation for the North Carolina Window on Student Education (NC WISE), as this project is deployed and is in operations and maintenance phase. Also there is a nonrecurring reduction of the cash balance - ($12 million).
_ Eliminated 26 positions in the Department of Public Instruction Technology Services area in order to find efficiencies and reduce redundancy. The reduction included departmental NC WISE positions, Offices of the Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Technology Business Services, and Project Management - ($2.8 million).
_There was also significant legislation passed to reform low-performing schools (SB 704); improve the graduation rate (HB 1877) and to identify and assist at-risk students earlier (HB 1875).
Community Colleges
_ Fully funded enrollment growth to help pay for the 16 percent increase (34,118 students) in enrollment - $85 million.
_ Provided funds for the purchase of instructional equipment and technology at all 58 colleges. These funds are in addition to the $43.3 million included in the base budget for this purpose. Funds shall be distributed in accordance with the existing equipment formula - $4 million.
_ Restored the reduction made to the Small Business Center allotment in 2009. This funding was added to each college’s base allocation. With this restoration, the total funding available for this program will be $5.75 million - $402,861.
_ Provided funds to assist Minority Male Mentoring programs at community colleges. These funds will be distributed through a competitive application process - $900,000.
_ Reduced funds, bringing the total management flexibility reduction for this fiscal year to $36 million. The State Board of Community Colleges shall distribute the flexibility reduction, accounting for the unique needs of each college. Each college shall have the flexibility to adjust its budget to implement this reduction, but shall not impact those activities directly involved in retraining displaced workers - ($22.75 million).
UNC System
_ Mandated a management flexibility reduction for the UNC operating budget with a priority on non-teaching related budget cuts. This reduction is in addition to the $100 million management flexibility reduction already authorized - ($139 million).
_ Abolished 47 positions in the UNC system that had been vacant two years or longer - ($2.5 million).
_ Repealed the in-state tuition break for out-of-state student athletes - ($9.4 million).
_ Increased the UNC system enrollment growth funding to $53 million - $5.6 million.
_ Repealed legislative tuition rates and restored the associated appropriation reduction - $34.8 million.
_ Increased UNC need-based financial aid - $12 million.
_ Increased funding to the Legislative Tuition Grant and the State Contractual Scholarship Fund for a 2.9 percent growth in enrollment in FY 2010-11 - $4.6 million.
Notes
_ The North Carolina General Assembly has developed a $13 million grant program to target students at risk of dropping out of school. Grants are for a maximum of $175,000 and are given to innovative programs and initiatives that demonstrate the potential to be developed into effective, sustainable, and replicable dropout prevention and re-entry programs in middle schools and high schools. The deadline for the latest cycle of grants is Aug. 31. For more information, visit http://www.ncpublicschools.org/dropout/grants/applicants/2010/.